14 Jul 2017Trelawney Stud graduate Spieth (Thorn Park x Stella Livia) has been back in his familiar
Warwick Farm surrounds for seven weeks now but Bryce Heys doesn’t want to put
“the cart before the horse” when it comes to thinking about The Everest.

“We’re hoping to trial him here at Warwick
Farm on the 14th of August and run him first up in the Concorde Stakes (1100m)
on the 2nd of September,” Heys said of the rising five-year-old.

“He is a bit bigger from where he was at
last time but that’s just naturally where he is at in his life and how he was
bred. He was always going to furnish. He is an athletic horse so not one that
carriers a lot of excess.

“We’ll just bring him up as we have done in
the past and we’re happy with the way he is ticking over. It’s just good to
have him back in the stable. He looks great and we’re certainly happy with his
condition. He is not a horse that you overly work.”

As far as the $10 million Royal Randwick
feature The Everest is concerned, Heys has a few irons in the fire but wants to
see Spieth stand up and prove himself a worthy contender first.

“We’d love to be there and he is having a
preparation geared towards being cherry ripe in mid-October but I don’t want to
put the cart before the horse.

“It’s the hottest ticket in town. From our
standpoint, he has the profile whereby he could be competitive in The Everest.
That’s the easy bit saying it but I think it’s important that when he goes to
the Concorde that he runs very well and then we can make a decision from there.

“It’s important to have him placed to
advantage and the Concorde is tailor made for him first-up then the spring will
take care of itself. There is a plethora of options that he can run in. He can
still run in The Shorts or Premiere or whatever it may be but we’d love to be
there (The Everest) under the right circumstances where he warrants his place.”

Few punters would argue that Speith is one
of the most deserving horses in training of a victory at the elite level and
there’s every chance he gets his dues over the spring. Interestingly, Spieth
not only takes after his old man in the looks department but perhaps his
maturity too with Thorn Park winning his maiden Group One, which also happened
to be his last race, at the age of five.

“He only had three starts in the autumn but
it was a frustration because he wasn’t in the winners’ circles but this is the
first time we’ve been able to give him a proper break,” Heys said.

“Prior to going out after the TJ (Smith
Stakes) he had been in and out of work for 12 months. That was by design but
this was the first time he has been able to spend a lengthy time in the
paddock. It’s not always the right thing with older horses like him but I just
think for where he was at, he has definitely benefited from it.”

Heys is a subscriber to the theory that
‘dreams are free’ and the congenial horseman has no doubt how different life
would be if The Everest trophy happened to find a home on his mantelpiece.

“(The Everest) is a game charger. At the moment
I’ve got five horses in work. We chug along okay but through weight of numbers
it’s hard to turn out a metropolitan horse. To have a horse like Spieth is
evidence that we can prepare a horse for a big day.” -Racing NSW